page_title: Alpine A210
section_title: M63, M64, and M65
hierarchical_section_title: Alpine A210 / History / M63, M64, and M65
caption_attribution_description: Alpine M 63 1963
context_page_description: The Alpine A210 was a sports car prototype manufactured by Alpine that competed in sports car racing from 1966 to 1969. The car derived from the M series prototypes introduced by the company in the early 1960s and powered by Gordini-tuned Renault engines with small displacements. In 1967, a short-lived V8-powered version of the A210, named as A211, was introduced. A major redesign of the A211, the A220, was unveiled the following year. As a consequence of the bad results achieved by these last two cars, Alpine withdrew from sports car racing for various years.
context_section_description: In 1962, the founder and chief of the Société des Automobiles Alpine, Jean Rédélé, with the support of Shell, requested to Renault Gordini-tuned engines for a sports car programme centred on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, similar to the ones used by BP-sponsored rival Bonnet. Rédélé get a 1-litre inline-four engine and his objective was to build a prototype capable of winning the index of performance award. He contacted Colin Chapman for the design, with the idea of mounting the engine on a Lotus 23-based car, but the latter refused and the basic design development was left in charge of British engineer Len Terry, who created a concept similar to the Lotus. The final chassis design was made by heavy vehicle engineer Richard Bouleau and the external design by Bernard Boyer. The new car was named M63, and, although having some structural problems, it won a class victory in its competition debut at the 1963 edition of the Nürburgring 1000 km. At the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans, however, none of the three M63s entered finished the race and one of their drivers, Brazilian Christian Heins, died. 
  After the problems encountered, Alpine built three units of a revised model based on the M63, named as M64. The new cars were entered alongside some of their predecessors into the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans where an M64 powered by a 1.1-litre engine won its class and the index of performance. An M64 also won its class at the 12 Hours of Reims of that year.  In 1965, Alpine introduced yet another revised version of its prototypes, named as M65. At the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans none of the Alpine prototypes entered finished the race, although M65s won their class on the 12 Hours of Reims and the Nürburgring 1000 km of that year.
caption: Alpine M63
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